I was panicking last week that the Overwatch League was going to play havoc with my sleep pattern once again, like it did in season one. Especially not good for an epileptic like me, and I know my neurologist would have killed me if I told her. Now that I’m not committing myself to watch every single match, I can finally get some sleep.
Sadly, not much as happened in the world of anime; nothing like company mergers or bizarre cancelling of shows, or anything like that. I didn’t follow the Anime Awards, largely because I knew that all of the major franchises that are advertised the most would win. Yeah, it can get a little boring, but I guess that just gives me more of a chance to sleep…oh wait, we had a recap episode come out of nowhere, and I was like: “Umm, why?”
Asteroid in Love Episode 6.5
In the last season, one of my recent favorite stupid shows, Kandagawa Jet Girls, had a recap episode, except it came super-early into the show. Here, at the halfway point, is the best time to air one. Saying that though, I genuinely did not expect a show like Asteroid in Love to put out a recap episode to begin with…or to rephrase, I didn’t think it even needed one.
I mean, those of us who are eagerly following what’s going on know too well about Mira & Ao’s mission to find an asteroid, and the merging of the Astronomy & Geology clubs to form one Earth Sciences club, and how much of a yuri addict Suzu is, and how much of a moody tsundere Sakurai is. All of these extremely ‘simple’ things have formed together excellently, and so I didn’t think it needed a recap episode, but alas here we are. I suppose I can take one thing away here: there were a couple of things I kind of forgot, and I got to see them again this week.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Episode 7
Pretty sure that the school in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! has an Astronomy club, or Geology club, or maybe they even merged those two together to make an Earth Sciences club…eh, whatever. What I do want though is to see what other weird clubs the writers here were able to think up, after what we saw last week. My particular favorites were the Messenger Pigeon club, the Neue Deutsche Härte club, and the Man-Faced Fish Investigation club; makes you think who would even sign up for those in the first place. Anyway…
I liked this week’s episode a lot, despite having the outset of a filler. More meetings with the Robot Club and Art Club take place, and Eizouken get around to recording voices and figuring out what sounds to use. But the main character this week is Tsubame, and why she made the decision to join Eizouken.
Ever since she was a young girl, what has fascinated her more than anything is movement. How people walk, stand and sit, right down to how liquid moves. Her parents made her join a dance school in order to become a model (just like her mother), but this seemed to drive her fascination even more, when she watches how models walk and pose. Her parents have also banned her from watching anime, but this too seems to drive her fascination, as we see this week that she isn’t that bothered with anime anyways, but instead animation.
This week, we are shown a great example: a rocket launch. Sure enough, viewers get excited when a rocket launches into the atmosphere, but what excites them even more is watching the smoke and fire when it launches, and the pieces that detach as it enters into space. Therefore, a distance shot of the launch would be far better than a closeup. I’m detracting a bit here, but examples like these that end up driving her to join Eizouken, and why she seems so animated (forgive the pun) into how these giant robots move. This may also be a reason why they have been so slow in putting out cels that they can use; Tsubame appears to be quite the perfectionist.
I’m glad my mind changed when it came to watching this show. If you remember, I had great reservations when it began, but since then, I have actually made the effort to rewatch past episodes, to catch up on things I’ve missed. That’s something I haven’t done in a show I’ve reviewed in this column for a long time.
In/Spectre Episode 6
Over on In/Spectre, they still are mulling over ideas on how to destroy the Steel Lady Nanase spirit, despite it manifesting and getting stronger thanks to the fan site they found. Eventually Kotoko has one idea that might potentially work. Use the fan site against her by making up an elaborate story about the spirit being complete fiction and a made-up tale, posting it online, and hoping the site’s readers will believe that more thereby making the spirit disappear.
An interesting way to get rid of a spirit that has been created and gets stronger by rumors and hearsay, but I have one major issue with this. All of this is not how getting rid of internet rumors works at all; just take 4chan as a big example. Once something is put on there, regardless of whether it’s true or not, that thing will stay there for years, and the users will just keep on talking about it again and again, completely undeterred and merciless, even when stories are disproved.
I’ll say that some of the plot in In/Spectre is starting to get a little ridiculous, but at the same time, the show as a whole is slowly and surely getting better, compared to how it began 4 or 5 episodes ago. Kotoko is still rattling on about the spirit world, actually convinced that the others even care, while both Kuro and Saki are still the same dull characters they were right from the beginning. Maybe once this Steel Lady Nanase arc has been wrapped up, we’ll get a recap episode of this too…although what difference would that actually make?
Flying Witch Episode 7
Finally onto Flying Witch, and as I started episode 7, I started to think whether Chinatsu was really genuine in her desire to be an apprentice witch. Is she even capable enough of doing it, or is it truly another silly thing very young children say? A shame that it isn’t really explained that much in this anime adaptation like it is in the manga. Regardless of this, we do see more mishaps and adventures with all of them.
In this episode though, the four of them (Makoto, Chinatsu, Kei and Nao) head out into the mountains to pick wild plants since spring is coming up. Later on is something that I remember well the first time I watched Flying Witch: the trip to a cafe run by a witch, with a ghost waitress.
Unlike past plot points in the show, the cafe will be something that will return in the next episode; I remember in the following episode (episode 8), the owner of the cafe arrives, along with some of their regular customers, all of which are pretty interesting. I do also think that it was pretty interesting for the studio to turn this part of the manga into something that carries on into two episodes. I mean they could have easily made the cafe arc into one big episode, but they chose not to. So I’m curious to know why they made this decision.
It actually occurred to me that the final episodes of Azur Lane are due to come out pretty soon; the studio decided to hold on production of this Fall 2019 show for reasons that I can’t quite remember. Now I’ve remembered what happened at the end of the last episode I watched (The Sakura Empire are about ready to throw in the towel, and both Belfast and Kaga snap), I figured that I might as well finish it off…and so when they emerge, they’ll be covered here. Well…I’m still not sold on Asteroid in Love, a show that I’m really loving this season, needing a recap episode, and I’m still not sold on whether this idea by Kotoko in In/Spectre will even work. Whoever said anime seasons were boring?…Oh wait.
What about you? Do you think good shows even need recap episodes at all? What even are the purpose of them, aside from us thinking that the studio are falling behind on production? And as for Azur Lane coming back with its final episodes soon, do you even remember what happened…and do you even care? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below! And one more thing…
I end up doing my out-of-season polls to determine what I’ll be watching the following season super-early, and this season is no exception: